The next day, Azlyn read through the written report Richiro had prepared for her. The report was fact driven, telling her about the diverse repertoire of spells able to cast with the scholar soul stone as well as some information dealing with the fairies they summoned. 

Due to the long sleep the fairy has been through, however, unlocking those spells seemed to have put a wrench in their training. The Au Ra shuffled through each page, seeing all the places Richiro Wichiro had gone with Eos to help reawaken those memories—which seemed to work, but not in the way Alka Zolka, the marauder, wanted.

It was concluded that based upon the fairies reaction, they were distinct individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and memories.

To test this theory, Azlyn went out to the same places that Richiro had gone, and witnessed her fairy go through a similar process—a connection—a light bulb moment that seemed to light as they visited the ancient Nym ruins in Upper La Noscea. And she too had been attacked by a rogue tonberry in her pursuit of the nymnian strategems locked away in her fairy.

Richiro Wichiro lifted his grimoire to read as Azlyn watched the tonberry run away after her fairy prevented her from dealing the final blow.

“Selene, what’s wrong?”

The fairy wouldn’t answer, only watching the tonberry flee into the distance.

The Lalafellin’s eyes did not stray from his book. “I see Selene doesn’t want us to kill them either. She prevented me from killing one that attacked me a few weeks back.”

Azlyn looked at Selene who was summoned at her side, she sat upon her shoulder giving her wings a moment to rest. “Despite that, I could tell she unlocked another memory.” She plucked out her grimoire full of Nymian text and started practicing the new supportive spell. “Perhaps the tonberries have a role to play down the line.”

Richiro snapped his own book closed, shaking his head. “Well today’s the day. A traveling peddler informed Alka Zolka that they caught sight of a green fiend that fled to Camp Bronze Lake. He has hired on two more marauders to help stop the monster of the Wanderer’s Palace from terrorizing any further. And he’s made it explicitly clear that he wants me to be in full control of my fairy!”

The girl looked at her shoulder to see Eos turn away. It wasn’t a snub by any means, but she could tell Eos wanted nothing to do with taking down the tonberry. “I think that might be out of our hands.”

“Exactly!” The boy cried out and sighed loudly. “But I also don’t wish for Alka to be mad at me either! What do I do!?”

“Just do the best you can—heal the marauders and we’ll see about following the plan together.”

Richiro Wichiro didn’t appear confident, even when they both teleported from Outer La Noscea to Camp Bronze Lake. Together they rendezvoused with the marauders and Alka Zolka. According to Richiro, this was the same spot the first time a tonberry attacked them in their pursuit of Eos’ memories.

Azlyn didn’t mistake the broken walkways pooling with the waters of the lake, and the Wanderer’s Palace that lay in the far west. She recalled Kida, Mjnt, Richiro, Koroko, and Thuzu went to handle the request, but she didn’t know what exactly were held within those hallowed halls.

Alka Zolka waved to them at their approach. “Thank the gods you have come Richiro! Oh! And Azlyn has come as well! This is cause for celebration!” The Lalafellin in chainmail greeted the pair warmly. “Well, any later and we would have had to proceed without you!”

“Couldn’t miss this for the world.” Azlyn smiled, as she gently nudged the nervous Richiro.

“R-Right! We’re both here to help in the… in the extermination… of… of… the tonberry…”

Alka Zolka gave him a thumbs up. “The tonberry appears to be in some sort of trance and is oblivious to our presence.”

The marauders were decked out in heavy chainmail. “Is everyone accounted for?” One of the asked.

Being in charge, Alka Zolka nodded. “Yes. Is everyone ready?”

They all nodded—as the marauders took point, Azlyn and Richiro formed the back of the group to run up the stairs. At the top platform, there stood a tonberry wearing a scholar hat—and dark aether seemed to converge around it. Azlyn called Selene to her side.

Richiro did the same, calling forth Eos.

Alka Zolka looked to them over his shoulder. “Remember, we must surround the fiend—it cannot be allowed to flee!”

RIchiro Wichiro nervously swallowed.

The tonberry sensed their presence—and slowly turned. A giant knife was held in its one hand, and a lantern in the other. “My sun, my dear sun—stay away—I cannot—”

Azlyn narrowed her eyes at the strange speech she overheard. “…what?”

The whole group seemed taken back by the speech it made, before it took the opportunity to flee ahead of them. It ran straight to the edge and jumped into bronze lake itself.

“Damnit! Not again!” Alka Zolka ran to the edge, peering down. “It seeks sanctuary inside the Wanderer’s Palace!” He turned to the marauders. “Prepare a vessel, we will sail over at once!”

The two marauders sprinted down the stairs, as Azlyn and Richiro looked up to Alka Zolka. “Come, we must finish this once and for all!” He sprinted past them, and it left them no other choice than to follow suit. They ran over to the pier, where the other two had started getting a boat ready.

Richiro hopped into the boat, while Azlyn worked on getting the ship untied from the dock. The oars were passed out, and before long they were pushing themselves along the lake to chase after this tonberry.

After ten minutes of stroking the oars, they finally made it to the Wanderer’s Palace. Richiro and Azlyn jumped out and started to run ahead of the others. “We’ll go on ahead!” Azlyn shouted over her shoulder.

They were beset by tonberry’s. Azlyn had to weave in and around their little knives, while Richiro mimicked her movements. Together they were able to render the tonberry’s unconscious but there was still no sign of the tonberry that talked.

While they were being attacked, Alka Zolka and the others had time to catch up—but they too had been riddled with tonberry’s that poured out from the shadows. Azlyn and Richiro healed and supported when they were able, and finally they moved past the long hallways into the first main room.

“Did it escape?”

Azlyn scanned the room, seeing the tail end of a cape disappear around the corner. “There!”

The three ran ahead while the other two Marauders guarded the front room. A horde of tonberry’s emerged and tried to ambush them when they tried to enter the next room over.

“Retreat back!” Alka Zolka recanted and pulled their forces back to where the other two Marauders were stationed. Altogether they handled the ambush, taking down the tonberry’s one by one.

Azlyn looked to the same hallway where she saw the tonberry run off to, only to see it approaching them. Its dagger had been held up, ready to attack. She fired off a miasma spell, while Richiro sent over a broil.

Alka Zolka went to charge it, slamming his axe to the creature. “Take that, vile fiend!” Just before he could cleave the tonberry in the head, Eos and Selene flew straight to the defense of the tonberry. The monster faltered under their protection, lowering its knife and dropping to the ground.

It was evident that the tonberry bore a wound on its back, as the cloak had been marred with its blood.

“What!” Alka Zolka turned to Richiro and Azlyn. “Again!? Why do you protect this demon!? 

Heal him.

Richiro panicked at the voice.

Azlyn did not hesitate, and signaled to Richiro to move to the side. As she stepped forward, she looked to the fallen creature behind their fairies. “Step aside Alka Zolka. We’re going to heal him.” She went to open her grimoire.

“Have you both gone mad! That thing is a monster! It must be put down!”

He tried to intervene, and he successfully stopped Azlyn in her tracks. But she was not the only healer there. Richiro cast a healing spell instantly, using his physick spell upon the injured creature.

Both Eos and Selene lifted their arms, as an aetheric energy of pure light burst out from them to the tonberry. The dark matter that consumed the tonberry slowly chipped away, as the healing white light mended it. Alka Zolka stepped back, watching as the peculiar tonberry slowly rose from the ground—his knife forgotten and his lantern by his side.

“The rancor—it—I—” The tonberry stuttered, before gazing to the three of them—and the two Marauders in the back. It then turned its gaze to the two fairies dancing over him, and he balked at the sight. “Lily, my sun! Why are you here? Who has summoned you?”

Eos, the one he referred to as Lily, flew over to Richiro Wichiro and happily presented him to the tonberry. Selene did the same, dancing happily by Azlyn, before sitting atop her shoulder confidently.

“Who are you?” Azlyn asked the tonberry, kneeling to her knee. She gazed to the intelligent tonberry with curiosity and wonder.  “My name is Azlyn. This is Richiro Wichiro, my friend. And Alka Zolka here is our friend from the Marauders.”

The peculiar tonberry lowered his head, shaking it. “I… what of Nym? What happened to our home?”

Alka Zolka answered his question more from disbelief than anything else. “Nym has been gone for over fifteen hundred years.”

“Then Nym… Nym is no more?” It looked to its hands, and its golden eyes sparkled with some liquid. “Fifteen hundred years…? Can it truly be so?” It stopped, before turning its gaze to them. The glasses it wore had some cracks in the lens. “I am—I was Surito Carito, before the sickness from the sea transformed me.”

“Surito Carito?” Richiro tried the name out. “And sickness from the sea?”

“I’ve never heard of such an ailment.” Azlyn quirked her head. “You were transformed?”

Surito Carito nodded. “Yes. The traders, they were the first. As their ears and noses began to atrophy, their limbs grew shorter, and their skin…”

“Their skin turned green?” Richiro Wichiro obviously noted.

The Marauders and Alka Zolka seemed taken back by this sudden new development.

“Have we… been murdering innocent people?” One of the male marauders said to their female partner. She sadly shook her head.

“I—I don’t know.”

Alka Zolka clenched his fists together. “What happened Surito Carito? Nym supposedly had the Scholars to help aid and mend all known maladies. What caused this one to grow out of control?”

Azlyn wondered the same, looking to Eos who floated next to her.

“We scholars tried to halt the spread, tried to find a cure. But in time, we too fell ill.” The tonberry turned from them, slowly walking to the edge of the hall where he stared to the water below. “Sympathy turned to fear, and fear to anger. Monsters, they called us. Abominations!” They could see his hand shaking the lantern.

“Then—then you were once a man…” Alka Zolka gave him a troubled glance.

Surito Carito only nodded, still facing away from them. “They sealed the sick within the temple with magicks—tried to drown us—tried to forget us. Though our bodies had been changed—our minds remained intact.” He paused, to look over his shoulder at last, his eyes brimmed with tears. “But within every man lurks a beast. When those whom you call kin deny you, come to hate you and despise you…”

“I don’t think I could ever imagine such pain.” Azlyn empathized deeply. “How was it that you were able to regain your senses?”

His gaze turned to Eos, as his face softened. “Lily, my dearest sun, with us reunited once more—and through both you and our fairies power—I have emerged from the rancor.” It was then when Eos and Selene happily flew over to him, giving him a side hug around the hood of his cloak. “Long had my mind been clouded with hatred. But by the resplendent light of Lily, at long last, I am free.”

Alka Zolka rubbed his eyes, as the two Marauders nodded their heads. “We should head back to Camp Bronze Lake—together, with our new friend.” The female marauder pointed out, and Alka Zolka nodded.

“Yes! Let’s go and see what we can do to help him!” The Lalafellin had a determined expression, as he offered a hand to the tonberry. “I can’t in consciousness continue to harm those who have suffered all alone, come along Surito Carito—together we will remedy this ailment.”

The marauders started to walk toward the entrance, where they moored their boat. As Eos and Selene moved with Surito Carito, Azlyn and Richiro witnessed the scene change. Standing in the hall, in a time long since passed, stood a lalafellin scholar with brown hair. He was smiling up to Eos who happily danced around him.

“Did… did you see that?” Richiro rubbed his eyes.

Azlyn slowly nodded her head. “Yeah Richiro… I think I did.”

Together the pair followed. The ride back to Camp Bronze Lake had been a quiet one—until one of the marauders looked to Azlyn and Richiro—his face filled with worry. “The tonberry used to be a scholar like you two…? So, does that mean you’ll turn into one of ‘em if you keep slingin’ those spells? Or did I misunderstand what he said back there?” He raked his brain as his partner shook her head.

“Yer overthinkin’ it mate. This happened fifteen hundred years ago. If the ailment is around—it hasn’t struck anyone in a long time.”

Richiro raised a hand to his chin, as they paddled slowly back. The lapping of the water came in repetitive timing. “I wish we knew more about it—and how to cure it.” He looked to Surito Carito who sat at the front edge of the boat, looking down at the river.

Alka Zolka weeped openly. “I—I nearly killed him!” He was offered a handkerchief from Azlyn, and he blew his nose into it. She declined to take it back from him after that. Once he was calm enough, he spoke aloud. “Thank the gods the fairies stopped me. I wonder if Eos knew it was Surito from the beginning, or—” He stopped, looking to the lone tonberry with Eos next to him. Selene had comfortably joined Azlyn on her shoulder. “In any case, your fairies have regained a good portion of their memories, if not all of them I suspect.”

Azlyn nodded, looking to Selene with mild interest. “It’s like a spark that ignites—when you start its small but overtime it gets bigger and stronger.”

The female marauder smiled over to them. “I came expectin’ to fight one tonberry, not a whole bloody mess of ‘em—but if it weren’t fer you and yer friends, I reckon we’d not have left there alive. ‘Course this whole sordid business with the aiment is cause fer concern.” She looked to Richiro and Alka. “Gotta say, you all make such a great team. Shame there ain’t more of ye scholarly types around. Cause I could use a partner like any of ye.”

Richiro perked up from his seat. “Perhaps if you check with the Arcanist’s guild in Limsa! I heard some arcanists have been training really hard!”

The female smiled. “I’ll go check them out—maybe I’ll find one as good as the Bloody Princess herself.”

“Don’t joke like that, please—I beg you.” Azlyn pouted into her hand.

By the time they arrived back to shore, they all hopped off—helping anchor and tie down the boat so that it wouldn’t float away. Surito Carito climbed the stairs, away from civilization. He stared long and hard to the Wanderer’s Palace.

Alka Zolka coughed into his hand. “Well if you would excuse me—I need to take some time to put my thoughts in order and decide how I might explain this to the Axemaster.” 

The marauders bid them goodbye, which left Azlyn and Richiro with the lone tonberry. They climbed the steps up to him and sat beside him.

Richiro asked him nervously. “Are you doing alright Surito Carito?”

The tonberry scholar nodded. “I am comforted to know that the traditions of my people have not been lost to the ages. I do not know how those soul crystals came to you, but I am glad that it did. For the sickness robbed me not only of my body, but of Lily as well.” He looked to Eos in comfort. “The soul of the Scholar no longer resonates with my aether. I cannot summon her—only you can. Only you are fit to wield the magicks now—and the many few who carry these soul stones.”

He spoke of his memories to them—how he learned his scholar abilities when he was young—how he felt so proud when he summoned Lily for the first time. They must have talked for a few hours that morning, before Surito Carito bid them goodbye for a time.

“I bequeath to you both the knowledge of Lustrate, my most powerful art.” He wrote into their grimoires the special arcanist ritual spell and gave them what they assumed was his smile. “May our paths cross once more. And thank you.”

“What will you do now Surito Carito?” Richiro asked as he dusted off his robes.

“There are still countless others who have yet to see the light—from being purged of the rancor. I cannot abandon them to their fate. I cannot. I will not.”

Azlyn could tell this would be a long and arduous task for him to bear, so she brought out her pinky to him. “I promise, if you call, I will do my best to help you in this endeavor.”

Richiro could see what she was doing and nodded his head quickly. “I feel the same!” He extended out his own pinky. “Together let’s do our best using our powers!”

Surito Carito lifted his hand up and clasped both of their hands together within his own. “Thank you. I bid you farewell—and carry our traditions with pride. I promise—we shall see this to its end.”